The European Union’s legislative body has halted the formal approval and implementation of the trade deal it reached last summer with US President Donald Trump, citing escalating threats against Greenland, Denmark, and their European allies.
Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that “given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have been left with no alternative but to suspend work” on the deal.
He added that no steps to advance the agreement will be taken “until the US decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation.”
Lange emphasized on X that “our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake” and described the current situation as making “business as usual impossible.”
The suspension comes after Trump announced last Saturday that he would impose tariffs on seven EU countries, as well as the UK, if they did not allow the US to control Greenland.
The EU-US trade deal, reached in July during European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Trump’s Turnberry golf club in Scotland, included a 15% cap on US tariffs for most EU imports, among the lowest rates offered to any trading partner last year. Certain EU goods, including generic pharmaceuticals, would have been tariff-free. In return, the EU agreed to reduce tariffs on select American goods, supporting US agricultural and industrial exports.
The transatlantic trade relationship is substantial, valued at $1.5 trillion annually in goods and services as of 2024, with the US importing over $600 billion in EU goods and Europe purchasing more than $360 billion in American products.
Von der Leyen expressed her disappointment in Davos on Tuesday, saying, “In politics as in business, a deal is a deal. When friends shake hands, it must mean something.” While Trump assured during his own
Davos speech that the U.S. would not use force to seize Greenland, he did not withdraw the threat of a 10% tariff starting February 1.
Lange described Trump’s assurances on military action as “a small positive element” but warned that “with this 10%-25% [tariffs] pressure, he is really getting into a new quality of relation.” As long as these tariff threats remain, Lange stated, “there will be no possibility for compromise.”
EU leaders are scheduled to meet on Thursday to coordinate their response, which may include retaliatory tariffs potentially worth $110 billion, targeting US exports ranging from Boeing airplanes and soybeans to Kentucky bourbon. Another measure under consideration is deploying the EU’s “Anti-Coercion Instrument,” which allows the bloc to impose a wide range of restrictions on U.S. goods and services in Europe.
